How to Look Up a Business in Georgia: Status, Agent, and Filings

To look up a Georgia business, use the Secretary of State’s free entity search at ecorp.sos.ga.gov/businesssearch. A Georgia business entity search returns a company’s current status, formation date, principal address, registered agent, officers, and every document it has filed with the state since formation.¹ Casual checks are free; certified documents with the state seal cost extra.

What You Can Search By

The portal accepts five inputs: business name, control number, registered agent name, officer name, or designated agent name.¹ The control number is the fastest route if you have it. It’s a permanent identifier the state assigns at formation and never changes, even if the company later amends its name.²

Name searches come with a warning. The legal name on file often differs from the name a business uses on its storefront, website, or invoices. Georgia requires each registered entity to have a name distinguishable from every other on record,³ but many companies operate publicly under a trade name (a DBA, for “doing business as”). Trade names in Georgia are filed with the Clerk of Superior Court in the county where the business operates, not with the Corporations Division.⁴ If your search turns up nothing under the storefront name, try searching by an officer name or the registered agent.

Sole proprietorships and general partnerships generally don’t register with the Corporations Division at all, so they won’t appear in the database regardless of how you search. Any trade name they use would be at the county level.

Running the Search

Open the portal at ecorp.sos.ga.gov/businesssearch. For a name search, pick one of three matching modes: Starts With, Contains, or Exact Match.¹ Contains is the most forgiving when you’re unsure of the exact wording. Enter your term and search.

The results list shows matching entities with basic identifying information such as the registered address and formation date. Click any name to open the full detail page. That page carries the current status, principal office address, registered agent, listed officers, and a link to the full filing history.²

Reading the Status Field

Status is the single most useful field on the detail page. It tells you whether the business is currently authorized to operate in Georgia.

Active/Compliance: The business is current on its annual registration. Georgia requires every corporation and LLC to file an annual registration between January 1 and April 1 each year, along with a $50 fee.⁵⁶
Administrative Dissolution: The Secretary of State dissolved the entity, typically because it missed its annual registration by more than 60 days or went 60 or more days without a registered agent. The business is no longer authorized to operate.⁷
Voluntarily Dissolved: The owners chose to wind down and filed articles of dissolution.
Withdrawn: A foreign entity (one formed in another state) voluntarily gave up its authority to do business in Georgia.

If you’re about to sign a contract, extend credit, or enter a joint venture, dealing with a dissolved entity carries real risk. A dissolved business generally can’t enforce contracts or sue in Georgia courts, and people who keep operating after dissolution may face personal liability that wouldn’t exist with an active company.

Registered Agent

The registered agent is the person or company designated to accept legal papers for the business. Georgia law makes the registered agent the official point of contact for lawsuits and government notices,⁸ so if you need to serve a suit on a Georgia company, the agent shown in the search results is where you start.

Officers and Directors

The officers and directors listed may not be current. Georgia businesses only update this information when they file an annual registration or an amendment, so the data can be up to a year old. Confirm before relying on it for anything time-sensitive.

Filing History

A link at the bottom of the detail page opens every document the entity has submitted since formation: articles of incorporation or organization, amendments, name changes, mergers, and annual registrations. A record with missed years and late catch-up filings paints a different picture than one filed on time every year.

What the Search Won’t Tell You

Active status with the Secretary of State means the entity has kept up with its paperwork. It says nothing about whether the business holds the professional licenses required for its industry, whether it’s financially sound, or whether it has pending lawsuits. A clean Corporations Division record is not a stamp of approval.

Professional Licenses

Many industries in Georgia require separate licensing beyond entity registration. Contractors, healthcare providers, cosmetologists, engineers, and dozens of other professions must hold active licenses issued by state licensing boards. The Secretary of State runs a separate verification portal for many of them at verify.sos.ga.gov.⁹ When hiring a licensed professional, check the Corporations Division for the entity and the licensing portal for the individual credential.

Federal Contractor Status

If a business claims to be a federal government contractor, that’s verified at SAM.gov, the federal government’s registration system for entities that do business with federal agencies.¹⁰ It’s a separate database from Georgia’s state records.

When You Need a Certified Document

A printout from the online search is fine for casual due diligence, but banks, courts, and business partners in formal transactions usually want a certified document carrying the state seal. Georgia law authorizes the Secretary of State to issue certificates of existence and certified copies of filed documents.¹¹

The most commonly requested is the Certificate of Existence, often called a Certificate of Good Standing. It carries the Secretary of State’s official seal and serves as presumptive legal evidence that the entity is properly formed and authorized to do business in Georgia.¹¹ Lenders routinely require one before closing a commercial loan.

Fees include a mandatory $10 service charge on top of the base fee:⁶

Certificate of Existence: $20 ($10 fee plus $10 service charge)
Certified copy of a filing, 25 pages or fewer: $20 ($10 fee plus $10 service charge), with 10 cents per page beyond 25
Certificate of Entity History: $50
Certificate of Fact: $50
Raised seal with blue ink: additional $25

Most certificates can be ordered online through the Corporations Division portal by adding items to a cart and paying electronically. A few specialty items, such as the Certificate of Entity History, are only available by paper request.

1
Georgia Secretary of State. GA Business Search – Georgia Corporations Division
2
Georgia Secretary of State. Corporations Division – Georgia Secretary of State’s Office
3
Justia. Georgia Code 14-2-401 – Corporate Name
4
Georgia.gov. File for a DBA (Doing Business As)
5
Justia. Georgia Code 14-2-1622 – Annual Registration for Secretary of State
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Georgia Secretary of State. Corporations Division Filing Fees
7
FindLaw. Georgia Code 14-2-1420 – Grounds for Administrative Dissolution
8
Justia. Georgia Code 14-2-504 – Service on Corporation
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Georgia Secretary of State. Search for a Professional Licensee – Verification
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SAM.gov. Entity Information
11
Justia. Georgia Code 14-2-128 – Certificate of Existence